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Mary Durham of American Hotel Services from Lincoln Park, Mich., shows items for sale Thursday at Pier 6600 Hotel in the Diamond Beach section of Lower Township. Pier 6600 is holding a sale of all of its interior furnishings and other items.

Renovations at Diamond Beach hotel make bits of the past available to buyers

Mary Durham of American Hotel Services from Lincoln Park, Mich., shows items for sale Thursday at Pier 6600 Hotel in the Diamond Beach section of Lower Township. Pier 6600 is holding a sale of all of its interior furnishings and other items.

LOWER TOWNSHIP — A hotel’s efforts to offer a fresh experience for tourists means pieces of its past are available to interested buyers.

Former guests of the Pier 6600 Hotel in the Diamond Beach section of the township can get the martini glass they drank from, the yellow swivel chair they sat in or even the whole bar as the facility undergoes a major renovation.

The hotel owners are looking to sell everything and anything in the beachfront hotel to make way for a new look.

Jane Pushee, a Michigan-based liquidator helping with the sale, said the owners, Achristavest Pier 6600 LLC, plan to renovate the hotel starting Feb. 1 and reopen in time for the summer tourism season.

When complete, the property will have 108 revamped suites with everything from new kitchens and bathrooms to furniture.

And that’s good news for the township, which has looked forward to the improvements at one of its major businesses, Township Manager Mike Voll said.

The hotel is assessed at $9.3 million.

“The township welcomes the investment. It’s a good thing for the township and a good way to invite a nice clientele,” Voll said. The interior work doesn’t require Planning Board approval, but renovations to the parking lot, handicapped accessible features and the restructuring of a restaurant will, he said.

Diane Wieland, director of tourism for Cape May County, said she was unaware of a rash of new investment in area businesses, but, like Voll, she said the renovations are welcome.

“It’s good to hear the hammers and saws going at this time of year,” she said.

Pushee said longtime Pier 6600 guests, business owners and passers-by looking for a deal can visit the hotel through 5 p.m. Sunday to purchase something as small as a roll of toilet paper to four-piece dinette sets priced at $29.

“It’s amazing how many calls we’ve gotten from people who say their family has been coming here for years,” she said.

On Thursday, rows of dishes lined a second-floor table inside what was The Velvet Lounge. The lounge’s vinyl-covered bar is among the sale items.

Nearby sat a circa-1940 film projector, multicolored bedspreads and not one, but two cash registers also ready for sale.

A street-legal six-passenger golf cart is even up for grabs.

“We try to make sure nothing goes into a Dumpster,” Pushee said.

The liquidation firm will sell everything it can — the giant ship’s anchor that sat in front of the hotel sold for $600 and required a front-end loader to be lifted — and the rest will go to charity to help victims of Hurricane Sandy.

The sale began just after New Year’s and has been brisk at times. On Thursday, a few people walked in to check out what part of the Pier 6600 they could take home.

Cape May Court House resident Dot Quille collected a box full of plates, bowls and cups, but that wasn’t what brought her to the sale.

“I was looking for lids” for her pots and pans, she said.

And there were plenty of saucepan lids to be had.

“This is wonderful,” she said as completed her shopping.

A collection of Hawaiian shirts and bright yellow T-shirts from the Barefoot Bar & Grille were available for $3 a piece.

The bar is closed, but an array of colorful flip-flops still hangs from its ceiling, decorated by guests long gone.